


lungs filled with sea water

by mish_mish



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Human Markus (Detroit: Become Human), M/M, Marmaid au, Merman Connor, very dark and beautiful fairy tale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2019-08-26 00:52:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16671649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mish_mish/pseuds/mish_mish
Summary: The world in which sea legends about creatures that live on the ocean bottom and fascinate sailors with their beautiful songs is no longer a legend, but a terrible reality. They are cruel and dangerous, but still quite rare.Markus works at the Marine Mammal Rescue Center, and he hardly thinks that he will ever have to cure someone more dangerous than the killer whale.





	1. 1. wild waves

**Author's Note:**

> Please be gentle with me, English is not my native language, but I still want to share my story with you!

[](https://imgbb.com/)   


The dark storming ocean throws up the ship on its foaming waves, as if angry that it had been disturbed, as if it says that there is no place for strangers. This is not a storm, only a barely begun gale, which hung like a gloomy steel cloud a couple of meters from the ship, but already threatens the sailors, which is more than three months at sea. The raindrops mix with sea water, together with the waves hit the sides of the vessel and cover the view. The air overfilled with nitrogen seems to be electrified, and it doesn’t let the wind blow its full chest, which throws it right in the face.  
The fishing vessel, an old seiner with a slightly lop-sided mast, jumps on the waves, and there is almost no doubt that this small gale can turn into a pretty strong storm for the team. The sailors work cohesively, as if one family, understanding each other from half a word, even if five minutes before that they were fighting like spouses in a long marriage.  
For almost a week they stood in calmness, and this storm seemed to open up a second wind to everyone, throwing all their hearts on the waves along with the ship. The week of calm was exhausting, not bringing anything, but now they were close to what they were looking for.  
The sailor, who stands on the lookout, gives a cry and his hand points to the right.  
“I see tails on the starboard side!”  
With the storm, the ocean seems to come alive; there is hardly anything more pleasant for a sailor than walking with a hold full of prey, be it fish, whale oil, or new exotic creatures for sale. On this cry of the lookout, everyone seemed to be blown away by the waves themselves; sailors fuss, assemble the nets and prepare the harpoons. But they do not hurry to launch the whaleboats into the water, waiting for the command of the captain for this. Leaving a ship in a storm is a rather risky business, but it’s not a storm, and the prey seems so close that they don’t want to hesitate - for all the way along the sea expanses, with rare exception, there was something worthwhile, and only a few miles away, a whole flock of killer whales or dolphins.  
The captain gives a signal, and the boats launch into the water; he occupies one of them himself, clutching tightly his favorite harpoon that never let him down. The captain of this ship is not to say that a real sea wolf with a snow-white beard like a sea foam, no. This is a handsome man in years with wrinkles around his eyes and a clear view of the blue eyes. His experience had already ceased to be calculated in years, and his fingers parched with salty air and sunburn, which had ingrained his skin, speaks for themselves, like his very reputation. The captain's name is Thomas Lawrence, and legends about his adventures are fascinating.  
Driven by a fluttering ocean, it is one of the first to swim to prey and see tails hitting the dark water. Black dolphins.  
“Feeding trough!” Thomas points to the silvery sides of the sardines reflected in the water. “This is a double luck.”  
His sailors throw nets and are quite noisy, already noticing that their catch today will be excellent, when one of the sailors spreads a call over the ocean.  
“Man overboard!”  
Everyone immediately begins to peer into the depths of the sea, but the darkness of the waters responds only by the noise of dolphins and the nascent storm. Fuss rises in the boats and the captain steps over the folded oars, trying to get close to the sailor who raised this call. He is sitting in another boat with a senior officer and peers into the abyss, as if trying to find the one he saw.  
“Are you sure, sailor?”  
“Yes, captain,” he nods, and even presses his hand to his chest, ready to swear. "Right next to the seine.''  
Thomas Lawrence raise his hand, attracting the attention of all three boats. He again looks at the ocean, - fussing scurrying fish and diving dolphins, - he looks attentively at the tails hitting the water, and a contented smile stretches on his lips.  
“Silence, gentlemen!” his voice is like a peal of thunder rushing along the water's edge, and everyone is quiet. “What do you know about sea legends? What do you know about the gloomy waters in which you should not swim? What do you know about creatures of unearthly beauty, who sinking sailors to the bottom of the sea? What do you know about monsters whose teeth are sharper than any blade?”  
The whisper that sweeps over the boats absorbs the sound of the wind and the splashing of the waves, but no one needs to listen to him in order to understand what is being said. The second mate, standing by the steering oars of his boat, gives a vote and clarifies for all the others who are suddenly frozen in disbelief and light fear.  
“Are you talking about mermaids?”  
With this question as if the wind increases and throws up the boats on its waves, knocking them away from the shoal of sardines. The captain instead of the answer approvingly giggles, tapping his own harpoon on the bottom of the boat.  
“Mermaids!”  
“This is for trouble!”  
Mermaids. Legend, that continues to frighten the sailors worse than the tales of the Flying Dutchman, through whose fault ships are lost in the seas, or of the island Saratan, which drowns the sailors who landed on it. Mermaids were no longer a legend; they were a terrible reality, a dangerous fate of the sailors, with whom they were destined to clash. But they were also the rarest and most expensive trade item. It’s not often who managed to catch a mermaid - the sea people never sailed by oneself, and in a battle surpassed the power of three healthy men, and any attempts to catch them always ended in tragedy. Sailors did not return home, sinking down to the bottom of the sea water.  
“So it is, Mr. Corner,” Captain Lawrence puts his index finger to his lips, urging him to be quieter. “This is such luck, let's not scare her and catch this devil!”  
“Yes, Captain,” Arthur Corner tells the sailors to take up the oars and smoothly row in the direction of the shoal of sardines.  
On the faces of his wards there is no usual excitement for them - fear has eclipsed everything - and the man does not blame them. It is possible that all of them are now doing the last breath, because catch the mermaid will not be so simple, she will not rush into the net voluntarily. His sailors still execute the order, and in order to somehow cheer them up, he, in his usual manner of humorous indignation, yells at them.  
“Hey, have you slept there? Pile on the oars; do not let our prey go! Do none of you want to see a beautiful mermaid?! I told to lean on the oars!”  
And as if in a single moment, the atmosphere of a frightened, terrified death in the horror, is replaced by the usual one, overflowing with readiness for hunting. Sailors began to fuss and were again in full readiness for the fact that now their holds will be filled with a good portion of fish, and even a mermaid.  
“Be careful, guys,” Lawrence instructs, peering into the water, where dolphins beat fins along the ocean. “It may not seem at all on the surface, but if you see it, drop the harpoon right away.”  
“Have you ever caught up with mermaids?” the cabin boy asks the question almost in a half whisper, but Thomas hears him and answers him with a smile bordering on grin.  
“I did. This creature left a rather deep mark on me.” He rolls up a sleeve on his left hand, and the sight on his forearm leaves much to be desired - as if a piece had been torn out and sewn up with dark threads carelessly. “But in the end she was mine. And we will catch this one too. Believe me, lad.”  
Their wait does not last too long: a dark, iridescent sapphire tail with a fin, similar to the fin of an adult killer whale — with even triangular lines, shows up above the water. It could be confused with the fin of black dolphins, that today they came to the feeding trough, but no experienced captain has any doubts who exactly this tail belongs to. And while the overflow of beautiful indigo color is not hidden in the depths of the ocean, Lawrence throws his harpoon.  
The scales of the mermaid's tail are durable and slippery, its plates fit snugly together, which can only be seen with a glance when they catch the blue light in the gray glow of the moon through the overcast sky. Therefore, the captain's harpoon only slips across the fin, barely touching, but perhaps still leaving a scratch - a piercing beautiful, almost hypnotizing cry is heard along with the waves under water.  
And now Lawrence understands that there are only two outcomes: either the creature rushes to the attack, or tries to go to the bottom. Here, just in the dark night waters, the tail again appears with soft sapphire brilliance, another harpoon flies, hitting the target and pulling a drawn out cry of pain from the mermaid. Finally, pale hands, that the colors of sea foam, appear on the surface, slender fingers cling to the shaft of a harpoon and try to pull it out when another sharp spear pierces the fin. The creature beats feverishly on the waves, hissing and barking sharp teeth, and Lawrence is interested in arching an eyebrow, realizing that in front of him is not a beautiful maiden with a shock of thick red hair, and the moonlight shimmers like precious stones. It's a boy.  
Males are rare among mermaids, Lawrence has never seen such in his lifetime, but now, looking at how this creature is beating furiously on the waves, how it throws sailors overboard, the excitement in it flares up in double size. They will be given not just a good amount of money, they will be given everything.  
He gives the order to capture the creature at any cost, but looking at how it bites its sharp teeth into the neck of one of the sailors who fell overboard, he twists a little.  
“Careful, guys! Do not damage it!” tells the captain, shouting harpooners. “Boys, drop the net!”  
But with the nets, too, nothing comes out: the tailed beast pulls on the harpoon and the foreman turns out to be in the depths of the sea faster than he manages to say a word. His being drowns, holds under water until he stops twitching, and a harpoon that no longer pierces creature's fin, merman throws it in the direction of the other boat, which throws the net at him.  
About three sailors die before the mermaid is finally caught. A beautiful long tail slaps across the water surface, showing fury, and thin pale hands trying unsuccessfully to break the nets. The creature is wounded, exhausted from the forces and therefore weakened, but Lawrence still considers the victory fair - he lost five people while he caught this creature.  
The young man hisses and lingering melodious sound, like the song of a whale, prays for help, but Thomas instantly stops his cry, pressing the edge of his harpoon wet from the water to the creature's cheek.  
“No, you don't want us to catch anyone else, right?” the creature looks at him with a scornful look of brown eyes, at the bottom of which are staring with a blue flash star lights. “Keep the mermaid in the water while we return to the ship! See that he does not break out; otherwise we will not be saved. They are quite vengeful.”  
Thomas Lawrence is content to catch and gazes at the whispering sailors sternly. They talk about bad omens and deaths. Those speak about the lost comrades-in-arms and the incessant attempts of the sea miracle, a living legend, to escape from the nets tightly wrapped around it. And the captain to some extent shares their anxieties: a meeting at sea with a mermaid promises trouble, but now they have not just met the mermaid, they caught it. Luck should be on their side. And so it is: the wounded water creature cannot get out of its fetters, the dark night waters hide his viscous blood dripping from the wound, and the hissing that he gives when someone from the team to touch him with an oar that is hardly so frightening.  
On the ship, Lawrence immediately orders to fill the reservoir with water, which is intended for dolphin pups, if they fall into the net, and place a mermaid there. All these actions: filling the box with sea water, dragging it with buckets from the ocean depths and lifting prey from the boat to the ship, all this takes a few minutes. The captain made it very clear that the creature must be endured with a fast and firm hand, because he will not tolerate delays from anyone. And when they took the mermaid out of the water, throwing one of the harpooners on the shoulder, they managed to keep the creature by a miracle. It kicked and pulled out of their hands as if the devil had thrown it at his hellish frying pan. Attempts to him, although they were in vain, but they were worthy of respect: the young man with his powerful tail knocked down from the rope ladder of two, forcing them to flop into the water while he was dragged onto the ship. He also did not leave a harpooner without injuries, gnawing at his shoulder with sharp teeth.  
Once on the deck, the young merman seemed to be perplexedly breathed for a moment, after which he was immediately sent to his dungeon in the tank. On this, it seems, all the noise caused by the splashing, hissing and lingering cry from the depths of the sea, ended, and remained buried under the metal cover of the reservoir. The sailors looked at their captain in silent defeat. They caught a mermaid. The most real one, the rarest.  
“Congratulations, gentlemen!” climbing the captain's bridge and feeling his enthusiasm bursting, Thomas Lawrence says solemnly. “Congratulations on the most important booty in your life!”


	2. creature from unknown depths

[ ](https://imgbb.com/)

**4 years later**

 

The sun was infinitely strong this afternoon, but even on such a good day there were surprisingly few people on the streets. Everyone was hiding from the suffocating hellish heat in their homes and was in no hurry to leave. Only tourists wandered through the stifling streets of the city.  
Such heat is a rather rare phenomenon in the area, and even if, according to weather forecasters, it lingers here only for a couple of days, it does not become easier to breathe. Dry air seems to burn the lungs and dries the trachea. Dry air seems dangerous and able to kill. But while everyone is saved from this heat, Markus Manfred has more work.  
It is difficult for animals to endure such heat: they search for secluded places and try to escape from the scorching sun, which complicates every aspect of his work activity. As a marine biologist, he hardly studies the migration of fish, because in hot jets of water heated by the sun, fish behave differently. With another job, the Jericho rehabilitation center, founded to help marine animals, is also not so good. Seals withstand this heat quite hard; the water in their pools needs to be changed much more often so that it does not heat up, and sometimes, when it comes to overheating, seal has to be placed in a separate compartment where he needs constant attention, which is now almost not enough for everyone. In addition to Markus in Jericho, three more people work, but this does little to help their cause — their nursery has grown significantly in recent years.  
Markus sighs and leans back in his chair, rubbing his eyes with his fingers. A glass of cold iced tea does not save him from the heat, and it seems that nothing in this closet provided for the office can help him. Here, as if the heat is specifically accumulating and Markus does not know what else to do to survive today. He does not like to spend working hours at the science center, but he has to do it.  
Markus loves his job, no matter what it is: tedious, when you have to spend about a few hours on a ship, collecting fish with the nets, and then, dividing them into categories, record their characteristics and new properties when migrating to spawn. Or heavy, when you have to drag sick seals and mutilated dolphins onto a stretcher and into an aquarium and do it quickly so that the animal does not panic and suffocate without water. And sometimes this work is even sad when, after the animal has recovered, having regained its strength, it must be released. Not all of their wards were wild; there are also such as the seal Leslie, who refuses to leave his pool and does not want to return to the wild.  
Markus remembers how a white whale was brought to them from the marine reserve, whose dorsal fin was damaged. They helped the animal, but its rehabilitation took a little longer than they expected. Markus was surprised that people from the main marine reserve of the city chose them to help. Their organization was not the most popular in the city. Later, one of the volunteers shared with them a common opinion among reserve workers that veterinary assistance to sea inhabitants in Jericho is the best. This still pleases Markus, because helping animals is his favorite activity.  
Recently, the local oceanarium even began to cooperate with them, and if Markus does not approve keeping wild animals in limited conditions for display to the public, he is well aware that most of them will no longer be able to survive in the open ocean. Now the majority of animals that are in aquariums and pools, live in captivity almost from birth. They are simply not adapted for wildlife.  
His phone quietly signals incoming message, and Markus opens his eyes, looking at the name of the sender. North.  
“Heck!”  
The young man does not look at the content of the message, imagining what he would sees there. He quickly jumps to his feet and slams the lid of the laptop, vehemently begging all the gods that exist in this world, so that the old junk will not decide to reboot tomorrow, when he comes and continues to write a report on mackerel and blue tuna.

Fortunately, the Center is not at the other end of the city, and Markus gets to it in less than half an hour, pausing to catch his breath before entering.  
Jericho does not look special or surprising; it is more like a regular veterinary clinic, with one exception, that it smells like fish all the time. Passing by the registration and a small corridor, he finds a girl in the rest room. North sits on the couch and looks at him menacingly. Denim shorts bare her tanned legs, and although Markus knows that usually North doesn’t walk like this, it’s too hot even for her.  
He exhales shortly, throws the keys with a mobile phone on the table and diligently pretends that nothing has happened.  
“Hi, North.”  
“Oh, don't even think about it, Markus!” she jumps off the couch as if a float jumps out of the water. “You're late for a whole hour!”  
“It’s as if you didn’t spend this hour with pleasure with Marty,” Markus grins, giving, without doubt, a strong argument — North has a special weakness for their new patient, dolphin Marty. “How is Leslie doing? Is she feel better?”  
“She is well, unlike you, moron!” North hits Markus in the shoulder, hastily grabs her bag and no longer with such anger adds: “I had important things to do!”  
“First, ouch!” With a slight grin says Markus, rubbing his shoulder. “And secondly, scattering Josh's things on the beach because he forgot to change the water in the pool does not fall into the category of important matters.”  
North does not respond to this, showing him the middle finger and tightens the tail more firmly on the back of her head. Even though she said that she was in a hurry on business, she was still not in a hurry to leave, looking at how Markus was pulling off his T-shirt, about to change. She looks at his broad shoulders and dark skin indifferently, more likely even with some challenge, as if for herself, to break stereotypes about embarrassing girls. North is hard to embarrass, but Markus never tried, at least not in that way for sure.  
“Any news?” He asks, noticing the girl's hitch at the door.  
“Yes, actually, there is,” she rubs her forehead in a tired manner. “This week no one will come for Robbie, he will have to stay here again. And Carl called you. Maybe you should throw the phone as unnecessary? He is still not very useful. As I see, you do not answer it.”  
Markus immediately pulls out his cell, take a look at the list of unanswered calls, and really finds Carl's number among them. He called him three times. Perhaps it really was important, since the artist decided to call to the Center. Markus thinks to call him back a little later, when he is more or less breathing after such a hasty arrival at Jericho.  
He nods to North in gratitude and says goodbye to her, staying alone in the Center. It is summer now, and not every one of their team can afford frequent shifts, because for them it has already become a habit to work alone. Although, every time a new pet appears, everyone get together it in order to get acquainted with the animal.  
It is a strange sensation to be in close proximity with wild animals; with those who should surf the oceans and dive under the glaciers. Coming out to the largest pool that they have in the Center, a little sloping, but more suitable for a reservoir in the wild than for a structure created by human hands, Markus crouches at the very edge of the water and lowers his bare feet into it. In the distance, he notices Tikki and Lesley. They bask in the cool water, which has not yet had time to warm up under the sun, and, seeing Markus, the seals yelp at him in greeting. Lesley immediately rolls from his cozy stove bench into the water and rows to him for greet him personally, or just for the smell the fresh fish, which he brought with him.  
“Hello, girl,” Markus smiles at the seal and strokes her neck, after which he applies his palm to her fins, which she pulls to him. Their kind of handshake. “You are fine, yes? North won't lie to me?”  
Lesley yelps a couple more times and puts her face on Markus's shoulder, tickling his cheek with vibrissae. She is in a vigorous mood, and there is no doubt that the state that caused her heat has now faded away. This makes Markus happy. He has become quite good friends with Lesley and he is pleased to know that she is fine now. Looking around, he also looks at Robbie and Marty. The dolphins swim peacefully in their pool a few meters to the right of Markus. This month they have more pets than usual, and, to admit, Markus even likes it. Being here seems to warm him from the inside.  
Lesley snorts in his neck, and the Markus understands her hint - a fish. He gives her one herring and she puffs, rejoicing in delicacy. The young man himself rises and, passing between the pools, finally gets to phone. He does not want to distract Carl, but he does not want to disturb him with a long wait either. Even though his adoptive father is kind and gentle, his words can prick quite sharply and hurt if he gets angry. Markus, of course, never experienced such a thing for himself, but he also does not want to start.  
“Did something happen, Carl?” after the second beep, he asks when the receiver is picked up at the other end.  
“Oh, Markus, no, everything is fine,“ the man does not sound negative, it pleases. “I wanted to know how the work at the Center is progressing. Are you not very busy?”  
“Not really,” throwing one herring into the pool, where Marty immediately catches her, raising a splash, says Markus. “Now it is hot and we need to regularly change the water, in aquariums. This is the only thing that can be considered a load. Did you want to add some dolphin to me?”  
“No, that's not the point,” Carl pauses for a moment, as if he is thinking over something, and this is a little alarming to Markus. “A friend of mine wondered if someone from your Center could come and look at his animal. It seems to him that it is sick.”  
“Carl, there are many good veterinarians in the city,” Markus sighs, handing over a pair of fish to the slow-moving Tikkah seal. He is gratefully yelping and snorting, clapping his flipper on his right side. This makes Markus smile.  
“Yes, but not all of them specialize in marine mammals,” the man inserts and adds quietly: “Moreover, he needs the best one.”  
“You say that because I'm your son,” Markus grins, but agrees to the dubious proposal anyway. Well, he cannot throw an animal when he needs help. “Okay, but today I will be able to do it only after six.”  
“I think it doesn't matter to him what time you arrive. I even believe that after I call him back and say that you agree, he will send the car for you.”  
This is slightly surprising Markus, but he does not argue, but he also wants to ask what kind of animal he will need to inspect, and how badly injured he is, what symptoms he has, but he doesn’t have time, because Carl is already saying goodbye.  
In general, this whole undertaking is rather dubious, cause if an animal has to be transported here, they should know how it relates to other representatives of the fauna, what its habits are and how wild it is. Markus has already got used to thinking in that vein that marine mammals are only large animals, and completely forgets that it may be something small, something completely harmless.  
Dolphin Marty makes a loud noise and makes somersaults, spraying Markus with water and rather jumping up and down. Someone today is clearly a good mood.  
“Hey! It's not funny!”

The room is like an interrogation room, furnished in a much more luxurious style, but still the feeling that it is meant to be flooded with questions does not disappear from Markus. But he does not feel embarrassed or uncomfortable here, perhaps, quite the contrary - now he has to ask questions. In front of him sits a tall man with pale hollow cheeks, neatly combed back hair and in a suit. Air conditioning works here and Markus doesn’t have any questions about how this person copes with such heat in this cocoon of clothes. Although there is a different feeling - as if he was guilty of something, and now he will certainly be reprimanded, no matter how advantageous his position would be.  
“Mr. Manfred, sorry for my perseverance, but this is a necessity, not our whim,” insists a man who had time to introduce himself as Jason Groff. “Understand us correctly, this is company policy.”  
He pushes the paper closer to Markus, and he again glances over it. Non-Disclosure Agreement.  
“Mr. Groff, sorry for my perseverance,” Markus emphasizes the last word, tacitly indicating that he clearly already exceeds his authority, “But I do not see the need to sign anything. You have requested that I conduct a survey and, if necessary, cure your animal. I emphasize - the request. I do not have to sign anything.”  
“True, you don’t have to, but we will still insist.”  
The door behind Markus opens with a small click and the young man will know the voice without a doubt. Not once heard this imposing tone in the stepfather's living room, when he had the opening of the exhibition.  
“Mr. Kamski,” Markus stretches his lips in a smile and let it be a little false, but still somewhat sincere. “I hope that you are not doing anything illegal, and you don’t have a whale in the basement, that listed in the red book.”  
Elijah laughs softly, pats Markus on the shoulder and says a few mysteriously:  
“No, of course not. Perhaps it is even better than any animal that you could imagine, young man. But we still need your signature, because this species is very rare. Frankly speaking, I wouldn’t get Carl and you involved in this, but with our past vet who examined my little miracle... There was a slight misfortune with him. And now we need a new one, and believe me, we are just in search. But this creature was so suddenly sick that it was impossible to delay. I do not want it to die."  
“Creature?” Markus frowns, still stuck in the words that a misfortune has happened to the former veterinarian. “Do you keep a predator here? Is it his fault that you are looking for a new vet?”  
Markus stares back at the documents and softly clicks his tongue. It was necessary to first find out everything, and then agrees. He did not think that here he could be asked to examine a dangerous animal. He did not think that it was probably because the animal was dangerous that his former veterinarian could no longer examine him.  
“If you keep a predator here, it is not surprising that he is sick. In captivity, they stop eating and can die within two weeks.”  
“Oh, you are talking about the great white shark, right? What is it called? The white death, the man-eating shark, karharodon karharias,” Elijah called one name after another, and Markus already imagines, as in one of the huge pools that are on the lower tier of the CyberLife tower, this terrible predator rushing from side to side with sharpest teeth. An unhappy poor predator that should not live here, bounded by the walls of the aquarium.  
Elijah pats him on the shoulder, suddenly slipping off the official tone, and with a gesture he indicates to follow him.  
“I know perfectly well that these amazing fishes are an endangered species, and no matter how much I want this, I am also familiar with the fact that they cannot survive in captivity. My predator ... is of a different kind.”  
Kamski leads the way through the corridors, and Mr. Groff follows him silently, without even looking up at Markus. In his hands all the same documents that are waiting for a signature and Manfred is not even so adamant, because curiosity has already begun to take over. Elijah is leading the way, and his white trousers, combined with a silk black shirt that opened only half of the buttons, set off his slim figure among the gray and white walls of the tower. And Markus is curious what exactly an animal does here. Do they experiment on it? Or does it just live here because the pools are bigger here?  
“Tell me, did you ever have to work with predators?” stops in front of the door, Elijah is again interested in the official tone.  
“I'm not really. In our cattery predatory individuals never stayed. But I can not say that I have not met with them. There was Mako Shark, that choked on a hedgehog fish,” says Markus, recalling this incident. “She couldn’t eat because of this and would probably die in three days if we hadn’t pulled the fish out.”  
''Not afraid of sharp teeth?”  
“Often, animals understand when you try to help them,” he shrugs, but still pulls his hand out, showing the scar in his palm, “but some still remain predators and try to defend themselves. You do not need to be afraid of them. It is always worth remembering that they are not less scared.”  
Elijah smiles rather, as if he was waiting for just that answer, but he still nods to Groff, again raising the subject of the signing of the agreement. He approaches Markus, stretching the documents, and before the young man has time to object, Kamski adds:  
“Mr. Manfred,” he says in a tone that was suddenly unfamiliar to Markus, “what if I tell you that there is such a creature that it is more dangerous than any shark, that it is more beautiful than any precious stone, that it is more mysterious than the deepest sea? What if I show you a creature that you never dreamed about?”  
Markus catches his breath and looks at Kamski with an expression of full attention, because he wants to see something so exciting, so unique.


	3. scales, fin and sharp teeth

[ ](https://imgbb.com/)

Elijah Kamski knows how to intrigue. He knows how to play with words as if they had been woven into his genetic code from birth. And he skillfully turns Markus into this stalemate, where signing an agreement is the only right decision. Elijah Kamski, without a doubt, gets what he wants.

He wraps his rings around Markus and casts such amazing sentences that the young man simply has no other way that sign these papers.

"What kind of creature do you have there?" Markus nods at the locked steel door and Elijah smiles. _Victory_.

"What do you know about sea legends? What do you know about scary monsters that live at the bottom of the ocean?"

Markus arches an eyebrow in surprise: he knows a lot about the inhabitants of the ocean depths. It’s not for nothing that he is a marine biologist, but now he cannot compare the words of the head of the Cyberlife company with reality. At the bottom of the ocean, there are quite scary species, to take as an example even an anglerfish, but Markus doubts that Kamski will have an ordinary fish there. This is something, without a doubt, worthwhile. Well, not a mythical sea serpent for sure.

"Sea legends? Do you keep the Kraken there?" a light laugh, finally, dilutes the atmosphere, and Markus no longer feels enchanted by Kamski's words. He feels free for exactly a minute until Elijah says:

"Mr. Manfred, what do you know about mermaids?"

Markus looks at the head of a vast company, at how his eyes light up, and does not understand. He looks at the door behind Kamski and holds his breath. Mermaids? Oh, he knows about mermaids; almost everyone knows about them, but almost no one saw them. Markus even heard that some of seafarers were trying to catch them, but still this is a rare practice. Mermaids are bloodthirsty and vindictive, and often such raids by sailors to hunt for mermaids end with the death of the whole team. But there were exceptions. Probably everyone in the city heard that about five years ago a glorious captain caught a beautiful mermaid in a storm. But no one saw his catch, so it was only a rumor, but there were also those who claimed to be on that ship and participated in the capture. There were those who said that they had never seen a more beautiful creature in their lives, and that there was no one more deadly than it either. The maritime miracle destroyed a third of the team, only had easily waved its tail. Markus has heard these stories so many times, but he cannot believe them. No matter how hard he explored the depths of the ocean, he never came across mermaids.

"You want to say that you have a mermaid there? A real one? Not some kind of hybrid?"

"The real one, young man," Kamski laughs softly and nods to Groff. "But still, before I show you this amazing creature, this sea diamond, we still need your signature. I believe that the reason for this is clear: we do not need hype around this creature."

Markus for the last time looks at the documents that Kamski's assistant gives to him before leaving his signature on them. Elijah nods satisfactorily and unlocks the door with an electronic key, and it seems to Markus that his signature on the Non-disclosure agreement is his biggest mistake in life.

The room where they go seems unimaginably empty and rather small to contain a pool with a unique new type of creature. There is almost nothing here except for a table with a computer in the center of the room, a rack with folders and books, and a small aquarium embedded in the wall. The water in it is azure pure color, but no living creatures are observed in it. Kamski takes Markus to this aquarium and smiles as softly as if with impatience. 

"Quite a small room for keeping such a rare and wayward creature," notes Markus, who is clearly a little disappointed. He was waiting for something more... large-scale?

"Oh, it's just a lookout. The pool is one floor higher; it’s just a small window." Kamski wipes his palm over the thick glass of the aquarium. "I thought that you first need to meet with this creature."

Markus knows that this is not what Kamski wants. He wants admiration. He wants to brag. He wants to show off his biggest treasure. And Markus humbly indulges him, because curiosity is a great human vice. It draws him to the azure water of the aquarium, draws by the beautiful words of Elijah Kamski, by all the legends that he heard from Carl in childhood. And only after a minute of waiting, the thought pops up in Markus's head; a thought that stings like a slippery jellyfish. The thought, that this mermaid is sick. She needs help, not spectators.

And it is easy for Markus to imagine how a red-haired charmer with a colorful beautiful tail, shaped like a coryphaenas, beats into the glass of an aquarium with her thin hands and prays for help. 

"It looks like someone is shy today." Elijah says a little guiltily. "Our little mermaid is usually more welcoming." 

Markus just shrugs, continuing to peer into the water. Nothing. Not a hint that someone lives there. Aquarium glass is built into the wall, and this resembles one of the halls in the local oceanarium. It is almost the same here: there are spectators too, there are sea creatures too. Here are just the second is not visible.

Moving closer to this small window in the pool, Markus peers into the water, as if hoping to look for this marvelous creature. And he really expects the mermaid to jump out suddenly from around the corner where he cannot see her, and she will harden right in front of the glass, peering at him. So it happens in films, right? The beautiful sea maiden stops, her long hair spreads like a halo under water, and her eyes are the color of a sunset ocean, peering curiously at a person. Pure and beautiful, like sunshine. But in reality, everything is different. In reality, no one appears, and Kamski smiles guiltily.

"Apparently, the two of you will meet only tomorrow, on survey." He shrugs his shoulders and turns back to the door.

"I did not say that I would come tomorrow," Markus inserts quickly, not forgetting that he has enough commitments outside this tower.

"Oh, believe me, you will come." Elijah smiles, looking at the aquarium. "I have no doubt about it."

Markus frowns a little, turns back to the aquarium, and notices a splash of water and a blue-black tail, with an overflow of blue scales, which is immediately hidden from view, not allowing him to fully see it.

"Apparently, not only you are curious," Elijah commented with satisfaction.

Markus still looks at the water for some minutes, hoping that he will be able to catch the moment again and see something, but the mermaid no longer shows up, and Kamski urges him to leave the room.

Markus is eaten up with doubts, he is drowned by excitement, he is oppressed by the understanding that such a strange creature is kept on a leash. And Markus is almost flooded with the desire to see this creature closer, study it, and help it. He tosses and turns in bed all night and thinks of a black, elegant tail with sapphire scales that shimmered in glimpses of light. Beautiful, but barely perceptible scales. Maybe this tail is even more beautiful if you can see it close. 

Kamski was right that Markus would come, because there could be no other way. It is possible that he would have come even if he had not seen the mermaid, but he had seen, and now there really is no doubt about it.

Oh, how many books he leafed through, how many legends he reread upon returning home. He even found newspaper articles from four years ago about Captain Thomas Lawrence, who, at the cost of several lives of his sailors, caught a mermaid in the storm waters. There was no photo or any detailed description, only a small, very tiny article about a brave battle and victory over a recalcitrant creature. Hero.

Marcus frowns dismissively at this definition and postpones the article. And this is a hero?

He did not sleep that night. There are too many thoughts in his head to sleep calmly. Instead, he sits down to study the mermaids: information about their structure is not much, but it's there, and this is at least a little, but enough for the initial inspection. He doesn't know what kind of disease this mermaid has, so he cannot make hasty conclusions, but at the same time he scrolls through his own records about the diseases of predators in captivity, which he did when he was at university. It may well be something to the wild simple, with which it will not be difficult to figure out, and maybe something serious, like hypovitaminosis. Or the creature could have been poisoned by any poison in the water. It would be not surpraising for a sea animal that lives in a small closed ecosystem.

Markus sits until dawn, until the sun looks lazily toward him. He slowly rubs his eyes, suddenly not feeling particularly tired. What kind of tiredness can we talk about when he is to meet today with one of the ancient sea legends, and now just the rarest kind of creatures on the planet? The only thing Markus feels is impatience.

He visits the Center one hour earlier today and begs Simon to replace him at work. Simon wondering about the reason for Markus’ unscheduled day off, for which he receives only a guilty shrug. Markus says that he needs to conduct a survey of one of the animals of Carl's friend, and Simon does not ask for clarification.

It’s kind of exciting to know that you’ll inspect not just a dolphin or a seal, but a real legend, and Markus still doesn’t fully believe that this is true. Why precisely he? Why not someone from more experienced government vets who specialize in the study of mermaids? This is clearly not the first mermaid caught in these waters, so why can't Kamski bring in professionals? And Markus immediately answers this question to himself: they had a professional, only they didn’t have time to find a new one, because their ward came down with a disease. Everything is extremely simple.

He is tiredly applied his forehead to the wet side of Lesley, with whom he sits by the pool, and hears her snort. Mermaid is dangerous. All of this is dangerous. It can end sadly if he is not extremely careful with this creature. Mermaids are smart, maybe they are much smarter than some people, and Markus just needs to win her trust; he just needs to try not to annoy her so much that she decides to get rid of her new vet.

"It will be very sad if I die there, right, Les? Who will be here to feed you extra fish?"

Seal nods approvingly, as if understanding his words, and Markus laughs, stroking her neck. He needs to be extremely attentive, and Markus knows how to do that.

Today it is not Jason Groff who meets him, but a young blonde girl with a pleasant smile. Chloe. Markus remembers her. She is Kamski's personal assistant that appeared more than once with his accompaniment at Carl's exhibitions. 

Today she in a straight blue pencil dress. She smiles softly and orders to follow her along the corridor. She is silent and gentle, as if a pleasant shadow, with which you do not need to have a conversation. She just complements the room, just decorates the view, just performs escort functions, and to some extent it is sad. A rather sad job.

"Mr. Kamski is waiting for you," she finally gives a voice, and she really sounds nice, like a bells ringing, muffled by her palms.

They arrive at the fourth floor under the ground, and Markus freezes in front of the door, because there already smells of water, coolness and something new. Chloe points to the steel door and applies her key card to the panel, unlocking the entrance. On the display the green admission lights up, and it is not difficult for Markus to guess that the entrance here is limited not only by doors, but also by special permission.

"Thank you," he nods to the girl and enters the room, which immediately surprises him with his dimensions.

The room is huge, spacious and divided into two zones. The largest part is occupied by the seemingly limitless size pool. The water in it is clean, but not crystal. Over the pool the bridge is laid without sides and railings. Markus is not surprised by this: in dolphinariums you can often find such, because it is convenient, it is much easier to deal with dolphins and feed them there. But this is a clear disadvantage if the inhabitants of this aquarium-basin are predators, because it will not be difficult for them to throw off their breadwinner in a dive into the water and eat them. Markus looks at this pavement and imagines that this is exactly what happened to the past veterinarian. The pool is glazed on all sides: thick, strong glasses one and a half meters above the floor turn this pool into a huge aquarium. The mermaid has almost no way to get out, but something tells Markus that she will not do it.

The other side of the room is darker, but the lamps that were put here for today's inspection, successfully compensate for this. There are tables with computers near the far wall, a little to the right a small table with tools familiar to Markus that are intended for the initial examination of the animal. The thing that catches his eye is a glass tank no more than a meter deep, already filled with water. In Markus' breath intercepts when he sees a dark fin, clearly not fitting in this kind of bath and hanging down outside. The glass tank itself is surrounded by people; they quietly talk, run their hands into the water and after each such immersion, the hissing, which is distributed from the water tank, becomes quieter.

"Markus, we thought you would come later."

Kamski moves away from his pet and goes to Manfred with a slight smile, but Markus himself still can’t tear his eyes off the tail fin. Black, like the night ocean, with white patches of spots-stars, it repeats the shape of a killer whale fin. The lobes of the fin are ideally even, dense, not the same as usually draw mermaids’ tails. This tail is powerful, but elegant; its flat thin scales shimmer like tiny sapphire stones. Beautiful and so unusual, because the killer whales have no scales, and this mermaid has it, and only at the very lobes of the fin the scales disappear, giving way to thick dark skin.

Markus from this distance can see only this fin, but suddenly he wants to not just look, he wants to touch, he wants to feel the smoothness of each scale with his palm, every curve of its shape. The mermaid hisses and fidgets in her bath, beats lazily along the board with a massive tail, clearly warning that she is angry, and Markus sees that there are still long spiny pelvic fins of dark blue on the sides of her tail. Beautiful, amazingly beautiful mermaid.

"We haven’t finished the procedure yet," Kamski, in his own way, throws his hand over Markus’ shoulder and leads him slowly to the water tank. "So he is rather anxious now. Take care of your fingers, because he can bite you."

Markus might have expected something else, when he approaching the bath; something ugly, with a flat nose and algae instead of hair. But what Markus sees, it is not ugly, but a beautiful creature with pearl skin and black tail with a blue overflow of scales. And this is clearly not a sea maiden with scattered red curls; this is a beautiful young man. He lazily kicks in a tank filled with water and twists his wrists tightly wrapped in a cord behind his back, hoping to break free. He looks exhausted, but still ready to fight to the last of his strength, not letting human hands touch to him. He bares his sharp teeth, hisses and twitches in the direction of the one who dares to bow down to him.

"Is this... male?" 

The surprise in Markus’ voice is clear, because he had never met any mention of the fact that there were males among the mermaids.

"As far as I know, yes," Kamski pats Markus on the shoulder. "The rarest species in the world."

Manfred comes close to the reservoir, nods to the warning to be careful, and finally catches the eye of the sea miracle. The eyes of a young man like a whirlpool: it tightens so that it is impossible to breathe. Dark brown eyes, almost black, they seem to be the very bottom of the sea, and the azure-blue ring around the iris is like a lunar eclipse. Markus is completely fascinated by these eyes, but he seems to be sweeping aside his interest, turning to Kamski and looking sternly. He is not here to look at a merman, he is to help him.

"What did you do to him? What was injected?"

"Ordinary tranquilizers," instead of Elijah, one of the men responds. He keeps the twitching young merman under water. "This is a dangerous predator, Mr. Manfred, there is no other option to conduct an inspection."

"This is a rational creature, not a wild animal," Markus finally feels a surge of confidence — he seems to be working in his area, where he has the right to be a little rude, even if it will be expressed only in the tone of his voice. "Let me examine him myself."


	4. 4. child of aquamarine depth

[ ](https://imgbb.com/)

In this room, stands alternately a squall of sounds, overflowing with hissing, splashing of water, agitated whisper of people, then deathly silence, barely held for more than a minute and a half. The merman in the glass tank rushes about, unable to roll over, to escape from the multitude of hands that are drawn to him, and therefore hisses and snaps his teeth like a rabid one. The tranquilizer seems to have already begun to act, but this obviously does not really have an impact on the amazing young man with a tail. He is still energetically, but somewhat slow, beats with his fin along the edge of the bathroom. He is angry and expresses his anger in this tail slapping, but experts that surround him, only cautiously look at him, and not retreating.

The merman is beautiful, even in this angry and inhibited state. Markus can hardly look away from this sea pearl, and when he finally gets it, he turns to Kamski. Elijah now stands at a distance, obviously not intending to participate in what is happening, but still remaining nearby. Manfred exhales slightly, suddenly feeling not very comfortable in his T-shirt among all these strict shirts and robes, but still going back to why he is here. He does not need a white coat to work.

"What are his symptoms?" Markus asks, pulling on latex gloves. "Why did you decide he was sick? He looks quite healthy at first glance."

"He’s just nervous," one of the men answers instead of Elijah, who takes a seat at a table with a computer. "In his calm state, the symptoms appear much brighter."

"He refuses to eat," a tall woman with blond hair responds in a more harsh tone. "He has not eaten for five days. He quickly gets tired and no longer fulfills the required rate of speed."

"It's all?" Markus asks and, waiting for a nod. "Well, I will ask everyone to go a few steps back in order not to disturb him, and..."

"This is a dangerous animal..."

Markus looks at the talking man, and as practice shows, he never says anything meaningful, so Manfred simply ignores him. He adds loudly that he will work as he likes, and hearing this, Kamski is smiling. With a wave of his hand, he orders the rest to obey, and they depart, freeing up space. The merman is waving his tail, watching everything that happens attentively, but when Markus steps closer, the young man grinds his teeth defensively and seems to shrink as he prepares for the jump. Of course, he cannot jump out, because of a completely unsuitable position for this, but Markus is amused by his zeal.

"Hello," Markus puts his hands forward, pointing out that he is unarmed and that he doesn’t want to harm him in any way. "Do not worry. I will not harm you. I want to help."

In response, he gets only a couple of short hissing sniffs, that warning him to not get closer. A powerful tail fin hits the edge more energetically, and Markus, no matter how much he wants to turn around and look at him in such close proximity, cannot break eye contact now. He cannot do that. He lowers his hands in the water and feels its coolness, its vibration from the vain sudden movements of a merman.

"Don't worry, I’ll just look how are you," Markus almost touches pale cheek the boy when sharp teeth snap dangerously close to his fingers. "Okay, I get it. You don't know me, yes, but I really want to help you."

He bends a little lower, looking at the face with perfect features, gliding along the small sapphire scales that are scattered across the cheekbones and along the hairline, along the shoulders and further along the hands of the merman. They look like strange freckles that cover the skin of a young man, and Markus knows that first of all, as a creature will let him touch him, he will run his fingers along these scales, they are so beautiful. The tailed boy looks at Markus with his amazing eyes, again dragging him somewhere deep down, somewhere to the bottom, but Markus realizes that he is not the only one who looks with interest, because the merman stares at him with a curious look. And, maybe, this is what contributes to the fact that when Markus finally touches the cool skin of a young man, he receives only a hissed muffled sound, which suddenly differs from the past in some kind of confusion.

"Everything will be fine, i swear." Markus promises softly, half a tone quieter, so that no one except the merman will hear it. "I won't hurt you."

The young man under his fingers does not twitch, but still looks with tension, as if reluctantly allowing human to touch him, but Markus considers this a huge victory. He breathes out with relief.

Small blue scales are smooth under his fingers, barely perceptible, but to Markus it seems as if he touches some ancient statue, where these plates are engraved with the hand of a master so skillfully and imperceptibly, but so painstakingly. He never ceases to think about how this merman is beautiful, how thin his figure is and how elegant the curve of his tail is, how deep his eyes are and how dangerous his whole look is. Now Markus is sure, that his heart is pounding in his chest frantically, because, however this creature may be, it is wild and not used to such appeals. It is frightened and angry, it now makes all its charming beauty sharp, formidable and capable of stinging.

While Markus, a little lowering merman's eyelid, examines his eyes for the presence of a damaged mucosa, even if there are any signs that the conditions of detention do not correspond to those recommended for wild sea animals, he feels how his fingers vibrate, how the alarming roar is born in the depths of the trachea of a merman.

"Hush," Markus smiles softly and with his big finger strokes the young man on the cheek, calming him, and he suddenly becomes even more worried and pulls his tail closer to himself, fidgets so that the water spills out of the glass tank and pours out on Markus. "Hey! Look what you've done."

Manfred is slightly relaxing, because this reminds him of the dolphin Marty, and he no longer feels this wild tension in the body. He does not feel the fear that the merman can tear a piece from him with his teeth. Instead, he even leans a little lower, ignoring the indignant sighs from the researchers. He knows what he is doing.

With his hands, Markus slowly slips to the lips of the predator, who under the pressure of others' fingers, meekly opens his mouth. Nothing strange. Nothing that could say that the cause of poor appetite can be a high content of chlorine in the water. Markus frowns a little, slides his hands around merman's neck and shoulders and does not notice any suspicious spots or tumors.

"You know, if you said what bothers you, it would be much easier."

The thin membranes between the fingers are suddenly paler in color than necessary, and Markus is distracted only for a moment to take scissors and cut the cord, which tightens the wrist of the sea miracle. Feeling freedom the merman grabs the side of the glass tank, but does not have time to slip out, because Markus holds it under water and pulls his hands closer to him.

"Lie still, I have not finished."

Markus presses creature's chest with his palm, holding him underwater, suddenly realizing that it might not be worthwhile to act so rashly and release him, but this was the only way to get a closer look at his hands. The mermaid, in response, hisses and kicks, splashes with a fin on everything that it can reach and demolishes the table that stands nearby. Tools are poured from it on the floor, and Markus just annoyingly exhales. He knows that merman is angry, understands the reason of it and wants to finish it all as quickly as possible, because fear returns again, reminding that the creature is much stronger, more bloodthirsty, and now it is more or less calm only thanks to the tranquilizer.

The merman beats and hisses, almost rushes at him when Markus touches the gills, which are exactly on his ribs. These gills are large, heaving and falling, showing obvious stress, and Markus soothingly strokes them, clearly hinting that there is nothing to be afraid of. He runs his fingers along their edges, checks for the presence of foreign clogged objects and does not detect anything. When Markus glances at his tail, finally, having the opportunity to see this strange miracle up close, he fully feels that this is all true. The tail under his palms is cold, slippery and seems like a dolphin; resilient, powerful. Markus wants to continue to touch, do not tear off his palms. He leads his hand further to the fin when he feels scales deformed to the touch. The young man shudders from this touch, hisses louder and pulls the tail away, rolling awkwardly to one side.

“Does he have a tail wound?”

"Alas, but yes. It is imperceptible, the old one, but sometimes it bothers him when it is touched." Kamski’s voice can be heard as if from a distance, while Markus again tries to approach the merman. "It was impossible to catch him without injuries."

"Then maybe it was not worth catching him at all?" Markus mumbles and notices merman's dark eyes with the blue ring around the iris on himself.

He finishes his survey in a hurry, having come to the conclusion that there are not so many reasons for which it is worth worrying. In general, the merman seems quite healthy and even quite pliable, which surprised Markus, because these creatures are wayward and inconstant. This creature could bite into his neck several times, bring such a good rustle among these gloomy researchers and observers, but still lay almost quietly.

When Markus turns away and moves from the glass tank with the merman in it to report on his observations to Kamski, he hears a loud splash behind and a thud. Cleverly getting out of his narrow bath, the young merman stretches full length on the floor and now, out of the water, his features seem sharper, as if stripped like a wire, dangerous.

He slaps on the floor with his mighty tail, helps himself to rise with his hands and grabs at the foot of Markus, not letting him go. And this is, without doubt, a dangerous situation; the people in the room groan and freeze, afraid to even move and Markus sees how frightened they are. Some of them rush away; someone whispers that it is necessary to isolate the room, because the creature was out of his cage. Markus looks at it and does not understand anything. He looks at this poor merman, who, sprawling on the floor and clings to. He looks at this young man and does not see any threat now. He looks at his gills on the ribs, that suddenly they seem to be unable to get air, gasping without water. He is like a fish thrown ashore, and Markus cannot just watch.

"Mr. Manfred, I hope that you are aware of what you are doing," Kamski’s voice is derisive. "My little mermaid can fascinate, so try not to indulge his whims. And step back; let the professionals figure it out."

But Markus does not retreat. He looks at those broad-shouldered men that come forward, armed with long sticks, and steps closer to the young man from the depths of the ocean, as if becoming a shield between them. Markus doesn’t know what he is doing, but he sees a merman gasp without water; he feels his grip on his ankle getting stronger and this seems like the right decision. The young man hisses warningly, but when Markus crouches down on one knee in front of him and stretches his arms, his growl subsides. He accepts help.


	5. wreathed with seaweed

[ ](https://imgbb.com/)

The silence in a small room with an aquarium embedded in the wall oppresses, and Markus peers into the azure-colored water just as he peered at it yesterday, looking for the beautiful merman he saw in this pool. Elijah Kamski stands behind him with his hands behind his back, and punishes him with silence. What happened a few hours earlier, as if the trace left on each of them, and, however much Marcus didn’t want to admit it, he hardly ever thought about anything terrible when he stretched his hand to the merman. He looked into those bottomless eyes and seemed to sink deeper, but, no matter how he understood that it was dangerous. He did not see evil in the eyes of the unknown marvel of the sea.

"Mr. Manfred, you must understand that your actions were rather rash," apparently Elijah was bored with sitting in silence, since he decides to speak. "This creature... This is not a friendly dolphin, and certainly not a reasonable person. It is a wild sea monster. You know the legends about these tailed devils? They are not just dangerous. They are greedy for human flesh."

Markus turns away from the aquarium to Kamski and looks at him. Everything is fine with him; a young man with a tail that is blacker than a crow's wing did not cause him any harm, perhaps he only scratched Markus' hand with his claws, when he did not want to loosen his grip. Elijah exaggerates, and Markus does not want to hear it.

"It seems to you that you know everything about this creature, but let's be honest, no one knows everything for sure," Elijah continues with a sigh. "What does every legend say, Mr. Manfred? That these beasts are endowed with heavenly beauty, and, no doubt, their beauty enchants, but we all know that there is no other reason than to drag the sailor to the bottom of the sea, to drown him and gnaw his bones. This individual is very inventive, Markus. I know that he look innocent, but he will not blink an eye to gnawing through your throat. What would I say to Carl if such a disaster happened?"

Kamski throws up his hands and exhales dramatically, obviously inspired by his own speech, but Markus doesn't seem to listen to him. He still remembers the feeling of cool skin on his hands, the slippery tail under his palms. He remembers the merman's scales on his fingers, and this wild desire to bow down and press the unfortunate creature closer to him. Was this the kind of charm Kamski is talking about? 

"Everything is fine, he wouldn't attack," Manfred certainly doesn’t have complete confidence in it, but he relies on his experience, when the animal is ready to rush into defense. Usually this is clearly visible in his eyes, and the merman had no intention of harming him. "He was just looking for help. I promised him when I started the inspection that I would help him, but apparently he understood it a little differently than just improving his health." 

"Help? What kind of help?" Kamski asks a question, but Markus looks at him puzzled: is it really incomprehensible? 

"He was uncomfortable in your tank," Markus says a little annoyed. "It is worth getting another one, bigger. Then your merman will not jump out of it to be in the pool."

Markus wearily rubs his cheek and finally feels all that tiredness that did not show up throughout the night he spent awake. Now he just wants to fall into bed and sleep until the next day, at least until noon, because he is not sure that he will be able to get out of bed if he does not catch up with the lost hours of sleep. He also wants to leave these dark gray walls and find himself in the sun-drenched pool next to Robbie and Marty, who will chatter, begging for fish and hiding in the depths from the scorching rays of the midday sun. He wants to be away from the gloomy tales.

Kamski nods knowingly at what Markus said; the merman just wanted to find himself again in the pool, where there would be nothing to restrain his movements except the walls built around. However, even this Markus does not approve. No matter how large the pool that Kamski equipped for his beloved little animal, it was still not the usual ocean. This pool does not make noise by the surf and does not stretch for endless kilometers. 

"You seem to understand him perfectly," Kamski grins a little, coming closer and as if pulling Markus out of his heavy thoughts.

"Often, wild marine animals have a similar reaction to keeping them in captivity. They don’t like cramped areas, and unfamiliar places cause them caution," Markus says, suppressing a yawn, and looks around again at the empty aquarium window. The merman is no longer shown and it does not surprise much, because this inspection was so stressful for the poor creature that now it sits on the bottom, lovingly stroking its old wound on the tail.

"What is the verdict?" Kamski comes very close and puts his hands on Markus' shoulders. "What's wrong with my little mermaid?"

"It is not like something serious. Perhaps he feels bad because of such a sharp change in climate. Many marine mammals are hard to tolerate this hot week."

Markus recalls Lesley, who had been refusing fish for several days because the sun was burns on her skin. Dolphins hid at all at the bottom of the deepest pool in the nursery, and bottlenose dolphin Maggie, who almost completed the rehabilitation course and is now in a small creek, ready to be released into her habitat, did not appear at all on the surface during the first half of the day, swimming just take a breath.

Kamski frowns a little at what has been said, and Markus already predicts his question:

"He is always here, how it can influence..."

"It is not necessary to constantly be in the sun in order to feel its impact. It is possible that the susceptibility of the sea people is much more acute than that of the others. Marlein wrote about this in his dissertation," Markus says, and before Elijah has time to say something, he continues to fill him with options that seem more reasonable to him for merman to get sick. "The changed dosage of chlorine in water could also affect his condition. The best option in this case would be to keep the merman in the sea water so that he could recover, but before all this it would not hurt to clean the pool. So there is another option. He is bored, sad and cramped."

Saying this, Markus smiles a little, seeing Kamski’s face stretch in surprise. Of course, he immediately erases this expression, replacing it with a mask, where he is ready to join in a long dispute that the merman does not get bored here, that he is constantly being cared for and that he is not deprived of attention, but they both know that this position is in any case will be losing.

"Such creatures like large predators, can hardly survive in captivity. Even the dolphins are very hard to bear this, they miss their relatives, and they die from loneliness. It is possible that with him something similar. We need to check all the options and..."

Markus turns to the table, where lies his not so extensive records that he made at night before coming here. He picks them up and finally believes that today's visit is over when Kamski calls out to him.

"Will you do this today?"

"I... No, I was thinking of going home and taking a break," Markus mumbles in reply, a little confused. He is not at all ready to spend the evening here, and perhaps also the night.

"I by no means insist," Kamski smiles too oily, and Markus gets sick of that smile. He turns over to his documents again before stumbling into something that excited him when he examined the mermaid. He looks at the drawing of the structure of the internal organs of the sea people, and asks the question a little more sharply than he wanted.

"You have not adapted it to breathe on the surface?"

Kamski looks at Manfred for about a minute in surprise, as if not understanding the meaning of the question, but when the young man is about to repeat the question, he frowns a little.

"He can breathe on the surface?"

The man looks genuinely surprised, obviously not expecting this. He looks puzzled at Markus and looks over his back to the aquarium. Apparently, the news that his merman is able to stay out of the water, surprises him.

"His structure suggests the presence of lungs, like all mammals, but I noticed that he uses only the gills for breathing," explains Markus, recalling how merman began to gasp for air outside the water. "And therefore he begins to choke when he is out of the water. How long he is here?"

"More than three years."

"And you still have not taught him breathing?" Markus feels neither irritation nor anger; he is quite calm, just tired, because this fact is just amusing him when he rubs his eyes once again, that they are ready to close at any moment in this pleasant gloom.

"Shouldn't he be able to do this by default? Dolphins and whales are..."

"Dolphins and whales do not have gills, they have to float to the surface at birth to take the first breath, but he doesn’t need it, he can be under water thanks to the gills," collecting his notes with him, Markus slowly wanders to the exit. "His lungs are not adapted for breathing, and this means that he needs to be trained. Breathing techniques and..."

"Will you do this?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

It seems like he misheard, because it can not be true. Markus turns to Kamski and looks at him like he split water on him. He did not intend to stay here longer. He is here only to improve the poor state of health of a rare sea creature. He is confident that a professional, whom Kamski is already looking for, will be able to do such a thing.

"Markus, let's be honest, I saw how you interacted with him today and it seems that he even likes you," Kamski nods back and Markus expects to see the tail disappearing behind the aquarium frame again, but no, he sees a merman and all the words disappear from his head. The young man is more than beautiful; he seemed to shine from the inside with moonlight. His dark hair halo framed his face, and the tail seemed to shimmer in an even brighter deep azure color – this is how scales play in the glare of lamps built into the pool.

"I can't," Markus breathes out suddenly with great difficulty. "I have a lot of work at the Center, and..."

"How about I donate a fairly generous amount of money to your Dolphin Protection Foundation, and even send volunteers to help you this summer? And you will help us in return, okay?"

Markus gazes at the merman, at the way he draws his thin hands to the glass and, as if studying, touches a solid surface. The young man once again captivates him, and Markus doubts that he ever had a choice. He steps to the aquarium glass and feels how everything is compressed inside him. This merman is beautiful. This young man is comparable in beauty, perhaps with the ocean itself in the soft twilight, the waters of which gather in themselves the reflections of the stars.

"I don’t want any of your researchers to bother me," he says, giving up.

Manfred bows his head and fingers over his forehead, trying to figure out whether he made the right choice. Without a doubt, the guys in 'Jericho' will be indignant; North will scream at him so much, because they now have so much work. 

Exhaling briefly again and nodding to himself, Markus notices how sharply the merman is jerks with his tail. He disappears from sight as quickly as if he was not there. Kamski doesn’t seem to notice the young man’s anxieties, obviously pleased that everything turns in his favor.

"In the near future I will introduce you to the team, but I will warn everyone about your request," he touches Markus’ shoulder and squeezes his fingers tenaciously, clearly not allowing him to refuse. "Can you start tomorrow?"

"Yes. I think so..."


End file.
